By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
The Palestine-Wheatley School Board approved construction of the first Palestine-Wheatley pre-school facility Monday.
By unanimous vote, board members elected to start the bid process on a concrete block pre-school building for 4-year-old children, to be located across the street from the kindergarten building in Palestine.
"This is something that we desperately need and something that will be a benefit to the entire district. We were shocked to find out recently that we are the only school system in the area and one of the few remaining in the state that doesn't have some form of pre-school. On a statewide basis there will soon be kindergarten testing of students to check their abilities and right now we have students entering school that are not prepared for school," said PWSD Superintendent Jimmy Allen.
Allen also added that by building the facility now the district would avoid being forced to do so at a later date. "The state, in my opinion, will eventually force all districts to have some sort of pre-school program and this will allow us to have something in place already without the issue being forced," Allen said.
Allen also answered questions from board members regarding where the funding of the program would come from and the likelihood of the program being nothing more than a baby-sitter.
"There are all types of grants available to pre-school and ABC programs from the state and from across the country. We may be too late to get anything from the state for next year but a large portion of future funding will come from grants and such that will help the district. We know that some pre-schools are glorified daycares but that is not something that we want. We want this to be an educational environment and that is what it is going to be," said Allen.
In other news board members agreed last night to give certified employees a $1,000 raise and classified employees a 4 percent raise for next year. According to Allen the raise to certified employees is in part due to Gov. Mike Huckabee's teacher pay raise plan.
"This is something that we have to do and it will be partly funded by the state. We're anticipating at least $800 of the money being funded and any of the raise that is not funded will carry over into the next year when we will have to give them an additional raise," he said.
Board members also agreed last night to the hiring of Lanny Allen as Junior High School head girls basketball coach. Allen is the son of PWSD superintendent Allen. "This is something that I stopped a couple of years ago when the board wanted to hire him. This time we only had four applicants for the position and Lanny was the most qualified for the job," Allen said.
The board approved his hiring by a five to one margin. In other employee news, the board accepted the resignations of three PWSD employees, Patsy Burns, William Smith and Amanda Semond.
Also, during last nights meeting, the board agreed to accept bids on surveillance cameras to be placed on district school buses. According to Allen cameras will be in place prior to the beginning of the new school year in August.
The following people have been sentenced in circuit court.
Tommy Lee Immell, 38, of Colt was given three years with credit for time served in the Arkansas Department of Corrections for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.
Alfred Smith Jr., 22, of Minneapolis, Minn., was given three years with credit for time served, for first degree battery and possession of firearms by a certain person.
A 17-year old Memphis juvenile was given a three-year suspended sentence for theft of property and fleeing.
Linda J. Arnold, 40, of Lexa, was given a one-year suspended sentence for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.
April Washington, 20, of Widener was given a five-year suspended sentence with two years supervised probation, for robbery.
Derrick N. Houston, 24, of Wynne, was given a five-year suspended sentence for possession of a controlled substance.
Jamie R. Browning, 22, of Palestine was given a three-year suspended sentence for possession of a controlled substance and paraphernalia.
Ronald F. Morris was given a three year suspended sentence for violations including DWI and refusing a urine test.
The multi-purpose facility being sought by Widener is closer to a reality.
The East Arkansas Planning and Development District has a request on record for $85,158.18 to build the facility.
Mayor Dot Halford said that about $50,000 was an actual grant request. The rest is in-kind labor and the land. According to Halford, the East Arkansas Enterprise Community is going to purchase the land for Widener.
"I go up the first of June to the governor's luncheon to receive the check," she said. "And they told us that if we didn't have enough money to complete the facility, there would be other money we could apply for."
Plans call for the building to be 40 feet by 60 feet, and contain a kitchen and rest room facilities. It is to be located across the street from the city hall.
"A long term plan is to get a basketball court built behind it," said Halford.
The City of Wheatley has applied for a Firefighter Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
If awarded, the grant would be for $176,000, and would go toward the purchase of a fire fighting vehicle. The vehicle would be a mini-pumper with rescue equipment.
According to Wheatley Mayor Larry Nash, the area has many grass and brush fires, and this piece of equipment would be useful in fighting those types of fires.
The grant application is currently on reivew at the East Arkansas Planning and Development District office in Jonesboro.